"Sexism is the foundation on which all tyranny is built. Every social form of hierarchy and abuse is modeled on male-over-female domination." - Andrea Dworkin
Andrea Dworkin, author and activist, is dead at age 58. According to the San Francisco Chronicle, she died at her home in Washington, D.C., with her husband and companion of more than three decades at her bedside.
Check out Rad Geek People's Daily Geekery Today blog on Andrea complete with a list of online memorials. It is definitely worth your while.
This wordweaving, wonderful woman gave me courage in my youth to stretch my arms and legs and reach beyond the oppression and abuse that constituted the thing we call "life" for many women including those in my own family. She gave me hope that if we all worked very hard and devoted ourselves to the struggle against the oppression of women that one day...some day... we would be able to have a real life - one worth living.
She broke the silence surrounding violence against women. She disdained things feminine and was a powerful woman. Her voice joined the chorus of likeminded women of the Second Wave who railed against the injustice of patriarchy and the institutions that support it.
She helped me to gain insight into western (sic) culture. Her first book, Woman Hating, published when she was only 17 years old, impacted my life greatly and caused many to raise their levels of awareness of how insidious patriarchal social mandates erode women's power and contribute to a lesser quality of life for all people.
Her voice spoke for many who were unable to speak for themselves.
I will miss her.
